Swedish Presidency oversees deal on new energy-efficiency labels
Wednesday, 25 November 2009 09:47 | 
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On 17 November the Swedish Presidency finally helped broker an agreement with the European Parliament over new energy labels for household appliances. It has become necessary to update the current legislation, as more and more products are now finding themselves in the top class of the current measuring system, after years of technological improvement. The A-G format has been retained, as the Parliament had wished to ensure, and instead new classes will be added to the best-performing 'A' class, with the highest achievable energy label becoming A+++.
News that the current system for labeling will remain, albeit with the modifications mentioned above, has nevertheless been criticized by environmental and consumer groups. They believe that by keeping the current A-G format, whilst implementing further categories within this framework, it will become confusing for consumers to easily distinguish between the best performing energy products.
In addition to agreeing to extend the scale, the Presidency also oversaw an agreement that will see the scope of the energy labeling laws extend to all energy-related products. In future all commercial and industrial products that consume energy will also have to be categorized according to the appropriate label. All producers will also be required to advertise the energy efficiency of their products as well.
Andris Piebalgs, the energy Commissioner, has praised the new changes, saying 'This agreement paves the way to adopt legislation on a wide range of products in the future that helps us to honour our commitment on the reduction of CO2 emissions'.
However WWF summed up the opposition that exists to the new rules, with their energy policy officer, Mariangiola Fabbri saying 'Already now, the text introduces a possibility of reclassifying the labels during the next revision - which clearly shows a lack of confidence in the new system. We can only hope that despite all the back and forth on labelling, consumers will learn to identify the most efficient products and even more so, buy them'.
Now that Parliament has agreed to the proposed changes it will be up to EU ministers to formally ratify the compromise agreement, which they are expected to do when they meet early next year.
News that the current system for labeling will remain, albeit with the modifications mentioned above, has nevertheless been criticized by environmental and consumer groups. They believe that by keeping the current A-G format, whilst implementing further categories within this framework, it will become confusing for consumers to easily distinguish between the best performing energy products.
In addition to agreeing to extend the scale, the Presidency also oversaw an agreement that will see the scope of the energy labeling laws extend to all energy-related products. In future all commercial and industrial products that consume energy will also have to be categorized according to the appropriate label. All producers will also be required to advertise the energy efficiency of their products as well.
Andris Piebalgs, the energy Commissioner, has praised the new changes, saying 'This agreement paves the way to adopt legislation on a wide range of products in the future that helps us to honour our commitment on the reduction of CO2 emissions'.
However WWF summed up the opposition that exists to the new rules, with their energy policy officer, Mariangiola Fabbri saying 'Already now, the text introduces a possibility of reclassifying the labels during the next revision - which clearly shows a lack of confidence in the new system. We can only hope that despite all the back and forth on labelling, consumers will learn to identify the most efficient products and even more so, buy them'.
Now that Parliament has agreed to the proposed changes it will be up to EU ministers to formally ratify the compromise agreement, which they are expected to do when they meet early next year.
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